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lordT · Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:37 pm

I am going to start college the next month and plan to buy myself a nice laptop. I plan to use it mainly for browsing, research and some occasional UT 2K4 action.

I have no idea of what size to look for. Suggestions? My budget is around 1200$. I am leaning towards Dell since I saw some juicy 30% off coupons

Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:42 pm

Caution against Dell, but their price is sometimes hard to beat.

You can buy those "build your own" notebooks too, but you really have to sort out support issues there. Not that Dell is any good to begin with, especially the consumer line. :-?

Synchromesh · Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:44 pm

I would go with a Thinkpad. When it comes to fairly inexpensive laptops, they're generally the best. Look at T-series ones, they're light and easy to live with while fairly inexpensive.

Dell I generally dislike, feel free to read some posts here about Dell tech support. And their laptops are generally not as good as Thinkpads.

lordT · Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:45 pm

Well, Dell is one of the few companies which have support centres here. I must clarify. I plan to make my Dad purchase the lappie there and have his friend, who is going to visit india, give me the laptop. So I need it from a company which allows location transfers.

SNM · Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:47 pm

I've never shopped for a PC laptop before, but if that's what I was going for it would definitely be a Thinkpad. I hate all the Dells I see floating around my campus -- they just feel chip, or else are way too big, but the Thinkpads are a thing of beauty and can have some kind of graphical horsepower since I know a kid who plays WoW on his during CS class. :lol:

lordT · Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:51 pm

Does Lenovo allow location transfers so that the laptops warranty is still valid in my country?

Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:51 pm

I don't think you can get a decent T series ThinkPad with a $1200 budget. Considering it is India, prices can only be higher there?

lordT · Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:56 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
I don't think you can get a decent T series ThinkPad with a $1200 budget. Considering it is India, prices can only be higher there?

The T series starts at 3315$ in India

/I really am holding all the above expressions

njenabnit · Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:59 pm

I have a 35% off coupon code, but it ends today. PM if you want it.

EDIT: Its for dell btw/.. :oops:

lordT · Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:01 pm

N_4_7_3 wrote:
I have a 35% off coupon code, but it ends today. PM if you want it.

EDIT: Its for dell btw/..

Not looking to buy one right now. A week later to organise the funds. I am still deciding on the components and juggling between them.

DreadCthulhu · Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:15 pm

Just checking HP, you can configure a DV5000T with a 1.6ghz Core Duo, 1GB Ram, 80GB HD, Geforce GO 7400, and DVD-RW for $900 or so, right now. Don't know about the warrenty transfer.

Usacomp2k3 · Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:19 pm

IIRC, Toshiba has some of the best International support. Might be worth checking into for that. Also, check to see if the college has any sort of promos and/or deals that you can get through them.

Byte Storm · Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:24 pm

Unfortunately most colleges go with dell for their comps and for support

lordT · Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:27 pm

Usacomp2k3 wrote:
IIRC, Toshiba has some of the best International support. Might be worth checking into for that. Also, check to see if the college has any sort of promos and/or deals that you can get through them.

Thnx. I'll look into the Toshiba lappies

Usacomp2k3 · Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:33 pm

lordtottuu wrote:
Usacomp2k3 wrote:
IIRC, Toshiba has some of the best International support. Might be worth checking into for that. Also, check to see if the college has any sort of promos and/or deals that you can get through them.

Thnx. I'll look into the Toshiba lappies

When we lived down in Peru, that's all that was recommended for anyone that travels overseas. I guess it would depend by country though. Other than the support, I don't really care for Toshiba. They're products tend to be a little bit pricey.

CampinCarl · Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:44 pm

<hijack>

One thing I noticed that is annoying on the Lenovo site is the price differentiations. For instance, on their main notebook page, they advertise R series starting at $482 and T series starting at $999. However, if you go view the R series, the price jumps automatically to $1,148.00

View the T series, the cheapest pre-config is jumped to $1,199.00.

Can someone explain those?

</hijack>

LicketySplit · Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:54 pm

DreadCthulhu wrote:
Just checking HP, you can configure a DV5000T with a 1.6ghz Core Duo, 1GB Ram, 80GB HD, Geforce GO 7400, and DVD-RW for $900 or so, right now. Don't know about the warrenty transfer.

Decent lappies for the price. Well constructed IMOHO.

soccergenius · Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:00 pm

I got myself an Asus 5670 for my college compy and I couldn't be happier. Core Duo 1.67GHz, 120GB HD, Radeon X1600, Dual Layer DVD RW, 15.4" widescreen, ~3.5 hour batter life, all at $1069 IIRC. I bought it at newegg. I feel that it's at the sweet spot for the specs... and I can play new games at the native resolution.

Highly recomended

Capsaicin · Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:10 pm

My HP is still kickin' after travelling halfway around the world and a half dozen 'local' flights.

cyberop · Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:02 am

lordtottuu...

I just picked this up... for something similar in a Toshiba from a reputable company I was looking at about $2000.

Inspiron E1705 Core Duo 1.73, 1GB DDR2, 60GB, DVDRW, WIFI, nVidia 7900 GS, WUXGA+ TrueLife $1070 Or $1017

http://www.slickdeals.net/?fromMonth=7&fromDay=15&fromYear=2006&toMonth=7&toDay=22&toYear=2006&site=slickdeals&pastdeals=Go#p7827

My appologies if I screwed the link up or if it's expired, but Slickdeals didn't show it as expired.

lordT · Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:58 am

Nice. Thanks for the link

Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:03 am

I won't be touching Dells until they admit to their problems with the power subsystem. Right now it is too explosive for my taste.

cyberop · Sun Jul 30, 2006 2:53 am

Flying Fox wrote:
I won't be touching Dells until they admit to their problems with the power subsystem. Right now it is too explosive for my taste.

Hah! great. I'm glad my laptop won't be my primary rig. Besides, I love class action lawsuits unless it's going to involve me in an airplane engulfed in a fiery ball heading towards the earth at unnatural angles. :oops:

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